School cafeteria founder Barbara Songy dies

Barbara Wellam Songy, a concerned mother who built and stocked a school cafeteria and then ran it for 50 years even though she had no experience in food-service management, died Dec. 27 at her Metairie home. She was 89.

Barbara Wellam Songy

A native of London who had lived in the New Orleans area since 1947, Mrs. Songy was alarmed when she learned in the early 1950s that her son's lunch at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Kenner consisted of a luncheon-meat sandwich and a bottle of Dr Pepper, said her daughter, Jeanine Songy Latham.

So Mrs. Songy set to work to see what she could do to ensure that her son and his fellow pupils received healthful lunches. She learned that the federal government would pay for the kitchen equipment if the school would provide the space, Latham said. Working with the Sisters of Mercy, who taught at the school, she collected $5,000 through fundraisers and the St. Rosalie Society of Perpetual Help matched it so construction could start.

When the cafeteria opened in 1955, Mrs. Songy was asked to manage it on a temporary basis. She wound up staying 50 years, until she retired in the spring of 2005.

Even though Mrs. Songy spent most of her life in a field for which she had no formal training, Latham said her mother was blessed with a natural gift for mathematics. During World War II in England, she had been a bookkeeper before going to work in a factory making airplane machinery.

She also taught ice skating. That was how she met Gerard Songy, a member of the 8th Air Force stationed in England. Because he was from Edgard, he had no experience on the ice, Latham said, and Barbara Wellam helped him get back up after he fell.

They married and moved to the New Orleans area in 1947.

He worked for Shell Oil Co. as a supervisor at the Norco refinery.

In addition to her cafeteria duties, Mrs. Songy had been an active member of Catholic Daughters of America since 1954. She was the first president of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parochial School Association, president of the Archdiocesan School Food Service Association and a member of the Archdiocesan Catholic Women's Executive Board and the Council of Catholic Schools Cooperative Club Executive Board.

Mrs. Songy received the St. Louis Medal for Outstanding Service to the Church and Community, the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Medal and the St. Elizabeth's Guild Award.

In addition to her daughter, survivors include two sons, Dr. Robert Songy of Metairie and Michael Gerard Songy of Tampa, Fla.; seven grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.